Merchant of Venice Essay: Antonios Love for Bassanio -- Merchant Veni

Antonios Love for Bassanio in The merchant of Venice Antonio feels closer to Bassanio than either other caliber in The Merchant of Venice. Our first clue to this is in the first burst when, in conversation with Antonio, Solanio says, Here flummoxs Bassanio, your most terrible kinsman, / Gratiano, and Lorenzo. Fare ye well / We leave you now with better company (i. i. 57-59). at a time Antonio is alone with Bassanio, the conversation becomes more intimate, and Antonio offers an indebted Bassanio My purse, my person, my extremest means (137). We find come forward later that Bassanio needs silver to woo Portia, a noble inheritrix who Bassanio intends to marry. And though Antonio is not in a position to loan money at the time, he does not disappoint Bassanio Neither have I money, nor commodityTo raise a present sum therefore, go forthTry what my credit can in Venice doThat shall be racket, dismantle to the uttermost,To furnish thee to Belmont, to fair Portia. (124-128) Antoni o does not make these offers to any other character in The Merchant of Venice. In fact, there is only one facial expression in which Antonio is present and Bassanio not in act 3 scene 3, and even then Antonio ends the scene with a plea for Bassanio Pray God, Bassanio come / To see me pay his debt, -- and then I care not (iii, iii, 35-36). Antonio expresses crawl in for Bassanio to him several times throughout the play (You know me well, and herein sink but time / To wind about my love with circumstance i, i, 154 retrieve me to your honourable wife / Tell her the process of Antonios end / Say how I loved you iv, i, 273-275). But whether the love Antonio holds for Bassanio is either sexual or Platonic is never overtly answered, which leaves speculation ... ...of Venice. Shakespeare Quarterly 37 1 20-37. Granville-Barker, Harley. The Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare Modern Essays in Criticism, Leonard Dean, ed. impertinently York Oxford University Press, 1967. Kahn, Coppelia. Th e Cuckoos Note Male Friendship and Cuckoldry in The Merchant of Venice. Shakespeares Rough Magic, Peter Erickson & Coppelia Kahn, eds. Newark University of Delaware Press, 1985. Patterson, Steve. The Bankruptcy of Homoerotic consideration in Shakespeares Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare Quarterly 49, 1 9-32 Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. The Complete deeds of William Shakespeare. Oxford Shakespeare Head Press, 1998. Sinfield, Alan. How to Read The Merchant of Venice Without Being Heterosexist. Alternative Shakespeare Volume 2, Terrance Hawkes, ed. New York Routledge, 1996